North Atlantic Refining Delays Plans for $1 Billion Investment to Expand Refinery in Newfoundland

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--North Atlantic Refining (Come By Chance, Newfoundland) is delaying plans to invest $1 billion in expanding the company's refinery in Come By Chance, due to refining margins. The petroleum refining industry hopes that margins continue to rise as the economy recovers. Companies in the industry are processing light and medium sour crude oil and are planning to process a less-expensive crude slate to become more competitive.

The units involved in the expansion are a 30,000- to 50,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) delayed coker unit; a 25,000- to 30,000-BBL/d naphtha hydrotreater unit; a 25,000- to 30,000-BBL/d distillate hydrotreater; a 25,000- to 30,000-BBL/d vacuum gas oil hydrotreater; a 2,250-BBL/d sulfur recovery unit; a 50 million- to 75 million-standard-cubic-feet-per-day hydrogen plant; a Merox unit; and associated off-site utilities.

North Atlantic is gearing up to perform a refinery-wide debottlenecking. The company plans to increase capacity from 115,000 BBL/d to 126,500 BBL/d. The debottlenecking will reduce operating costs, increase throughput, improve reliability, and enhance margins. SNC Lavalin (Sarnia, Ontario) is performing engineering and procurement services. North Atlantic will serve as its own construction manager for the project, which is expected to begin construction in late 2010.

The refinery was built in the early 1970s, and North Atlantic Refining processes 63% light to medium sour crude, 19% sweet crude, 16% heavy sour, and 2% high-acid sweet. The refinery was shut down in 1976 and restarted in 1986 by Newfoundland Processing Limited, from which North Atlantic Refining purchased the refinery in 1994. The refinery was purchased by Harvest Energy in October 2006, making it a fully integrated oil and gas company.

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